The elderly or enfeebled require assistance in walking up and down stairways. Often the side bannister is an insufficient support or guide for such persons. Further, when the person loses his or her grip of the bannister, the person may fall down the stairs, possibly causing severe injury.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,785,487, granted Dec. 16, 1980, to McAvoy, there is disclosed a stairway guard or gate which slides down and up a stairway. The user walks down the stairs while leaning on the gate. The rate of descent of the gate is set. The gate is opened at the bottom and when released at the bottom returns to the top of the stairs ready for the next person descending the stairs. The McAvoy structure is useful only in descent and there is no effective braking of the gate with the fall of the person.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,287, granted Mar. 3, 1981 to Overmoe, discloses walking bars which slide in guide slots, whereby the user can support his weight on the bar while moving up and down from one step to another. Should the user loses his grip of the bar, the user is free to fall. This is particularly so in ascending the stairs.
It was desired in the art to provide a stairway safety device to prevent the user from falling down the stairs in the event the user stumbles or loses his or her grip, in ascending or descending the stairs.